Action Alert – CatholicVote.orghttps://www.catholicvote.org
The mission of CatholicVote.org is to educate and inspire Americans of all faiths to prioritize the issues of life, faith, and family.Tue, 20 Mar 2018 02:09:37 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.2The Catholic Vote Radio Hour is a program where the dogma lives loudly.CatholicVote.orgcleanepisodicCatholicVote.orgmercer@catholicvote.orgmercer@catholicvote.org (CatholicVote.org)No mules were harmed in the making of this episodeAction Alert – CatholicVote.orghttp://catholicvote.org/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/cv-podcast-469.pnghttps://www.catholicvote.org/category/action-alert-2/
mercer@catholicvote.orgThe Catholic Vote Radio Hour is a program where the dogma lives loudly. Call your Senators and urge them to #ConfirmGorsuchhttps://www.catholicvote.org/call-your-senators-and-urge-them-to-confirmgorsuch/
https://www.catholicvote.org/call-your-senators-and-urge-them-to-confirmgorsuch/#commentsWed, 22 Mar 2017 19:33:42 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=12499The Senate Judiciary Committee is in the midst of hearings on Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch. So far, he has excelled, especially in his defense of our First Amendment right to religious freedom. These hearings have confirmed what Judge Gorsuch’s record showed: he will be a superb Supreme Court Justice.

Soon, the full Senate will debate the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch. If you live in one of these 9 critical states, please contact your Senator ASAP and tell them you support the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch.

“…[W]e gave everything up, and now we’re living in slums, and shipping containers, all because we refused to renounce Jesus Christ.”

The 12 days of Christmas have begun, and many of us are still at home, enjoying the warmth and comforts of family, friends, and feasts. But for some Christians there is “no home for the holidays” this year, as Perry Chiaramonte recently reported at Fox News:

[T]he campaign to liberate Mosul from ISIS rages on, [and]Christian residents of surrounding villages already freed from the terror army’s grip have returned to find their homes booby-trapped, in ruins and uninhabitable.

…In some towns, most of the infrastructure has been reduced to rubble; in others, dangerous chemical compounds have been dumped, polluting the ground. But what all the places have in common is that they are unsafe and nearly impossible for those who fled to return any time soon.”

For American Christians, our persecuted brothers and sisters in the Middle East are both an inspiration and an opportunity this Christmas Season. Their heroic witness gives us an inspiring glimpse into the heart of the Lord who was hunted by the powers of darkness from the moment of His conception. These Christians also represent an opportunity for us to give back to Our Lord by drawing close to the people closest to Him; those who suffer for His sake.

Enter the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, one of my favorite advocacy organizations. “This year, December marks the official beginning of rebuilding efforts with Operation Return to Nineveh, our massive campaign to rebuild communities and churches destroyed by the Islamic State since 2014,” a recent blog update at iraqichristianrelief.org states. On Christmas Day, they also prepared “1,000 Christmas presents for 1,000 displaced Assyrian Christian children who have suffered tremendous trauma at the hands of the Islamic State….”

Juliana Taimoorazy is the founder and president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, and a Senior Fellow for the Philos Project. In a recent interview, she told me about the tremendous hardship many Assyrian Christians have faced since ISIS’s attacks in 2014, and about the hopeful mission of the “Operation Return to Nineveh” campaign:

It is incredibly important for the Christians to be armed to protect their own kind. In 2014 the Iraqi government, the Iraqi military and the Peshmerga failed us gravely in not protecting the vulnerable minorities. The Kurdish Regional Government, the Peshmerga, actually took our weapons away about two weeks before ISIS attacked. So we didn’t have any weapons to protect ourselves. A lot of our women were kidnapped, a lot of our kids were executed, a lot of our men were executed, because we couldn’t defend ourselves.

So now that we’re working on liberating these areas from ISIS, if we don’t protect ourselves, we do not trust the Kurds and we do not trust the Iraqi government to protect us. That’s why we are appealing to the West to help us to be equipped to defend our own when the time comes if, God forbid, there’s another attack.

Right now we have multiple Assyrian Christian militias. One of them that is the only officially recognized militia is called the Ninevah Plain Protection Unit, which is a part of the Iraqi military. They are assisted very little, but they are assisted by the Iraqi government, and they have been trained by the Americans. But we need more than that. We need a lot more for us to really have our own province.

When I asked Taimoorazy about the faith of Christians displaced by ISIS, she gave a surprising answer. “Their faith has grown stronger,” she said, “much stronger.” She told me what some local Christians had said to her face on a recent visit to Iraq:

You Christians in the West don’t understand Christianity as well as we do. We really have faith in Jesus. Look at how we live. We used to have homes like you do. We used to be doctors and lawyers and farm owners just like you. But we gave everything up, and now we’re living in slums, and shipping containers, all because we refused to renounce Jesus Christ.

“They say ISIS has caused them to become stronger Christians,” Taimoorazy said.

Being the Hands and Feet of Jesus

We know it’s our duty to defend the vulnerable, the “least of these” whom Christ warned us to treat as Himself (Matthew 25:40). Some of these Christians are in the same position the Christ Child was in during the first Christmas season: homeless, hungry, and hunted by soldiers with orders to kill.

Can there possibly be a better birthday gift for Our Lord than supporting His persecuted children in the Middle East, so close to where Christianity itself was born? This Christmastide, please consider supporting Juliana Taimoorazy and the work of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council. To donate, click here for the Iraqi Christian Relief Council’s donation page.

“I have been raising awareness in America since 2007 when not many people knew that there were Christians in Iraq who were being persecuted for their faith and for their Assyrian ethnicity,” Taimoorazy told me:

It is heartwarming to see that the Western Church is waking up to the cause of the Christians of Iraq and Syria and there are more and more organizations wanting to do the right thing. One of these organizations is the Knights of Columbus who compassionately has come along our Eastern Church and have extended their Christian hand to help. I ask the Western Church to remember that if the Holy Spirit brings us the knowledge of such persecution, then He, our Lord expects us to act. St. Teresa of Avila said: “Christ has no Body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours.” Knowledge bears responsibility and now that my fellow Western Christians know of the despair and suffering, it is our duty to break the long silence and be the hands and feet of Jesus on earth.

For more information about the plight of our brothers and sisters in the Middle East, click here or visit victimsofisis.org to learn about the Iraqi Christian Relief Council.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/hunted-by-herod-or-by-isis-the-persecuted-deserve-our-christmas-gifts/feed/1Going to Vegashttps://www.catholicvote.org/going-to-vegas/
https://www.catholicvote.org/going-to-vegas/#respondTue, 11 Oct 2016 19:11:50 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=10671CV just released a new ad in Nevada.

Why Nevada?

Because control of the Senate likely will come down to this fierce race to replace retiring pro-abortion Senator Harry Reid.

Dr. Joe Heck is a faithful pro-life Catholic, physician, and Army veteran.

Imagine replacing pro-abortion Reid with a pro-life Catholic! I mean, who can can forget the shameful partisanship of Harry Reid? He was the epitome of obstructionism on judges and Planned Parenthood’s chief ally for the past 12 years as leader of the Senate Democrats.

Because of Harry Reid, we have Obamacare, taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, and much more.

Reid is finally retiring from the Senate after 30 years. This is our chance to replace him with somebody we can be proud of!

The latest polls show pro-life Catholic candidate Joe Heck leading by a thread…

So we’re targeting every Catholic voter in Nevada starting today with our new ad for Joe Heck. That’s approximately 313,000 Catholic voters…

Joe Heck is just one of many pro-life, pro-freedom Senate candidates committed to approving Supreme Court Justices who will uphold our values.

In Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Missouri, Nevada, and elsewhere, principled candidates who have pledged to defend life and religious freedom in the Senate are embattled in tough races against candidates who actively oppose our rights and values.

The Senate is our last line of defense against Obamacare on steroids, more funding for Planned Parenthood, and the approval of radical Supreme Court Justices who want to rewrite our nation’s laws.

Joe Heck will be a warrior for our Catholic values.

Let’s step up and help our brother in faith win this critical Senate seat.

Medicare and Medicaid patients would be completely shut out of Catholic medical care. But that’s really just the beginning.With the loss of millions of patients, just about every Catholic hospital would have to shut down. It would be the end of Catholic health care in America.

Generations of Catholics have devoted their lives to building Catholic hospitals in the United States. We urgently need to protect this legacy. Take a minute and pick up your phone now.

Understanding everything that’s at stake, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and USCCB President Cardinal Dolan pleaded with Congress to pass this legislation immediately:”While existing federal laws already protect conscientious objection to abortion in theory, this protection has not proved effective in practice. Since then, three new developments make the need for immediate action to pass the Conscience Protection Act even more urgent,” said Cardinal Dolan and Archbishop Lori.

Those three developments:

The Obama administration ruled against two Catholic universities on June 21, requiring them to submit to a state demand to cover elective abortions in their insurance plans — despite objections by the schools on religious liberty grounds. The Obama administration said that the Weldon amendment signed into law in 2004 applied only to insurers and physicians — not to insurance companies. Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, called this an “outrageous misinterpretation.”

New York’s Department of Financial Services in May ordered healthcare entities to provide abortion coverage in their health care plans including faith-based nonprofits, churches, and Christian businesses. No exemptions at all were provided.

A Washington state judge ruled in June that any hospital that provides maternity care must also provide abortion services on site.

Make no mistake: the attacks on religious liberty are escalating every week. We need all Catholics to step up to the plate and fight for their cherished first Freedom of Religious Liberty.

If you have never called your Representative before, make this your first call.

Call the Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Give them your zip code and they’ll patch you through to your Representative’s office.

Nothing gets the attention of Congress like their phones ringing off the hook.

Yet. But the ACLU, the HHS Department, and all the other demons of the underworld are giving it their best shot, and getting close.

Which is why, in a letter to Congress today, Cardinal Dolan and Archbishop Lori urged representatives to pass the Conscience Protection Act of 2016 to prevent doctors and nurses from being forced to perform abortions.

Federal law has already provided such protection for decades, but just recently these laws have been subject to new “interpretations” that have gutted their meaning and rendered them completely ineffectual.

The Conscience Protection Act is intended to shore up those long-standing legal protections so that healthcare providers and employers will not be forced to perform or provide access to abortion against their consciences.

As is becoming more and more often the case, there is much at stake. Make no mistake – the forces of death won’t stop until every obstetrics doctor and nurse in the country is forced to perform abortions or give up their license.

We can sit back and let it happen, or we can stand behind the bishops and make our voices heard with theirs.

Early Sunday morning, 49 of our fellow Americans were killed by a purportedly gay, radical Islamist, who pledged allegiance to ISIS. The killer scoped several locations for his heinous crime, including Disney World where tens of thousands of families visit every day. He ultimately committed his crime at a gay night club.

Shamefully, in the days since the massacre, partisan ideologues have used the mass-murder to demonize Christians, gun owners, and anyone who doesn’t fully embrace the radical LGBT agenda.

…and it’s not just the ACLU.

Several of our own Bishops are engaging in this madness.

This is disgraceful. And wrong.

Every person killed in Orlando was made in the image and likeness of God. Human dignity does not stop at the doorstep of a gay night club. Each of the victims was loved by God beyond measure.

Not a single Catholic has celebrated this crime. Not one Catholic voice has called for violence against gay and lesbian people. But now, an increasing number of leaders are attempting to exploit the terrorist attack in Orlando to advance political agendas — and they are even blaming us!

Don’t believe me? Consider just these few examples:

Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Florida, wrote in a national editorial: “sadly it is religion, including our own, which targets, mostly verbally, and also often breeds contempt for gays, lesbians and transgender people. Attacks today on LGBT men and women often plant the seed of contempt, then hatred, which can ultimately lead to violence.” Link.

A New York Times editorial today: “…lawmakers who have actively championed discriminatory laws and policies, and those who have quietly enabled them with votes, should force themselves to read the obituaries and look at the photos. The 49 people killed in Orlando were victims of a terrorist attack. But they also need to be remembered as casualties of a society where hate has deep roots.” Link.

Chase Strangio, a lawyer for the ACLU’s LGBT & AIDS Project: “The Christian Right has introduced 200 anti-LGBT bills in the last six months and people blaming Islam for this. No. You know what is gross – your thoughts and prayers and Islamophobia after you created this anti-queer climate.” Link.

Virginia Congressman Don Beyer claimed if you oppose transgender bathrooms, you are part of the problem. “Hatred breeds hatred… we are not blameless.” he said. Link.

Did you get that? You and I are partly to blame for Orlando.

Catholics who believe in the natural institution of marriage and the intrinsic beauty and complementarity of men and women, and who desire to protect women and children from predators in public restrooms helped fuel this terrorist attack? This is outrageous.

This is nothing more than the shameless exploitation of a terrible terrorist attack to fuel hatred of anyone that believes in the time-honored institution of marriage, and traditional sexual morality.

What happened in Orlando was an act of terrorism, fueled by a radical ideology and carried out by a mad man. To suggest that faithful Catholics helped encourage this attack is beyond disgraceful.

We will not stand for it. And neither should you.

I am asking every CV member to write or call Bishop Lynch in St. Petersburg today.

Ask him to clarify his comments, which suggest that Catholic teaching on marriage and sexuality somehow “breeds contempt for gays.” Ask him to consider issuing a public clarification.

Please do not personally attack the Bishop. He remains a shepherd of the Church. However, we must defend our rights as Catholics to follow the teachings of our Church — and respond together to the insinuation that doing so leads to violence.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/bishop-catholics-share-blame-for-orlando/feed/30[PETITION] Tell the Senate: No Hearings. No Votes.https://www.catholicvote.org/petition-tell-the-senate-no-hearings-no-votes/
https://www.catholicvote.org/petition-tell-the-senate-no-hearings-no-votes/#commentsThu, 17 Mar 2016 14:48:49 +0000http://catholicvote.org/?p=3706CV members who support Trump have been quick to try and set us straight.

We remain skeptical of a President Trump. But on one thing he’s right:

Voters should have a say in filling this crucial Supreme Court vacancy. That means the Senate should not confirm any nominee until we have a new President next year.

This morning President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace the recently deceased Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court. Garland is the chief judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 63-year old judge is considered by some to be a “moderate.”

Now… I know you won’t fall for this trick.

We have come to learn the hard way that “moderate” simply means someone willing to trample on the Constitution not as rapidly as others.

Judge Merrick Garland has praised the papers of the late Justice Harry Blackmun — author of the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision — as a “great gift to the country.” And this morning, the billion dollar abortion giant Planned Parenthood endorsed him.

Replacing Justice Scalia need not dwell on Merrick Garland, or any other nominee this year. Our position is simple: the GOP should follow the tradition of the Senate, and the position taken by Democratic Senators Schumer and Joe Biden: No Supreme Court confirmations during a presidential election year.

After all, it was Joe Biden who said in 1992:

The Senate, too, Mr. President, must consider how it would respond to a Supreme Court vacancy that would occur in the full throes of an election year. It is my view that if the President goes the way of Presidents Fillmore and Johnson and presses an election-year nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over.

Barack Obama’s previous nominees to the Court have joined the other liberals on the Court to form a four-vote bloc. To complete their mission they need one more vote on the Court. One more vote for partial-birth abortion. One more vote to finally end religious liberty for business owners like the Hobby Lobby, or for charities like Catholic Charities and the Little Sisters of the Poor. One more vote to gut the Second Amendment right to protect your family.

With a fifth liberal vote on the Court, the right to same-sex marriage will inevitably be interpreted to equate the defense of traditional marriage with hate speech and discrimination. What you and I believe about marriage and the family could become illegal!

Our last line of defense is the United States Senate.

We worked hard in 2014 to hand control of the Senate to the Republicans — as a check against Obama’s power. Now the Senate Republicans must hold the line and say: No Hearings. No Vote.

The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins hearings today entitled “Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining the Horrific Abortion Practices at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider.” The investigation is a response to Center for Medical Progress‘ undercover videos, which have revealed Planned Parenthood’s illegal sale of aborted baby body parts.

Meanwhile, pro-abortion politicians attempt bizarre verbal gymnastics in support of Planned Parenthood, a defensive response that is raising eyebrows across the country. With tens of thousands of alternative health clinics available to women, why the insistence on using tax-payer dollars to fund the abortion-provider?

We dug through some public data to solve the mystery. It’s simple: pro-abortion politicians in the House and Senate have accepted millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood’s campaign fund. Ten of them sit on the Judiciary Committee:

Rep. Suzan DelBene (D, WA): $19,232

Rep. Scott Peters (D, CA): $14,700

Rep. David Cicilline (D, RI): $6,000

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D, NY): $4,000

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D, CA): $2,000

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D, TX): $4,000

Rep. Steve Cohen (D, TN): $1,999

Rep. Judy Chu (D, CA): $1,000

Rep. Luis V Gutierrez (D, IL): $2,500

Rep. Karen Bass (D, CA): $1,500

Planned Parenthood’s Political Action Committee has already paid for protection from the House Judiciary committee.

Expose this scandal before it’s too late. Visit PlannedPROFIThood.org to find your Representatives and demand they return the money.

A vote to cut off taxpayer funding is now scheduled for the Senate this evening at 5:30 PM EST.

We need you to call your two Senators today!

Tell them: “I urge you to halt all funding of Planned Parenthood while Congress conducts an investigation. No organization that trafficks in the sale of human body parts from abortion should receive any support from the United States government!”

Four undercover videos have shown high-ranking officials from Planned Parenthood engaged in the negotiating, sales, and trafficking of baby body parts. The evidence suggests that Planned Parenthood is violating existing federal laws!

That’s why we need public hearings. The funding must stop so Congress can get to the bottom of this now.

You don’t have to be a pro-life activist to realize that it’s wrong for American taxpayers to give over $500 million in taxpayer money to an organization accused of such heinous acts against children.

Democratic Senators are expected to mount a vicious fight to prevent the Senate from getting to a final vote. That’s why if you live in Alaska, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia your call is especially important.

How strongly is public sentiment against Planned Parenthood? So much so that even Hillary Clinton felt compelled to call what was revealed in the videos “disgusting.” But Hillary’s line was totally phony. Within 24 hours, she publicly announced: “I stand with Planned Parenthood.”

Planned Parenthood has received billions of taxpayer dollars over the decades, and has many friends in the media, and on Capitol Hill.

But these videos have awakened the American people to what’s going on behind the closed doors of Planned Parenthood.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/urgent-action-needed-vote-to-defund-planned-parenthood-set-for-today/feed/5Five Things You Can Do Right Now to End Abortion [PART 2]https://www.catholicvote.org/five-things-you-can-do-right-now-to-end-abortion-part-2/
https://www.catholicvote.org/five-things-you-can-do-right-now-to-end-abortion-part-2/#respondTue, 28 Jul 2015 19:06:40 +0000http://www.catholicvote.org/?p=68128For the first two ways you can end abortion right now, click here.

Last week, I told readers of the Catholic World Report that we’ve arrived at the pro-life moment. I claimed that “the pro-life movement is on the cusp of the fierce urgency of now. Now is the time to launch a full-scale investigation of Planned Parenthood. Now is the time to defund an organization that already receives over one billion dollars in corporate donations and federal tax dollars every year. Now is the time to demand a ban on late-term abortions.” If I’m right, then we’d better not squander this moment.

To make sure we don’t, here are the final three things we can do right now for the cause of life.

3. We can write our elected officials in Congress to demand the immediate defunding of Planned Parenthood.

We need to get behind Representative Black’s legislative initiatives. And, we shouldn’t wait to do that. There is no reason tax dollars need to be funneled to America’s largest abortion provider. As US Senator Rand Paul remarked on Fox News’ Sean Hannity show on July 22, everything Planned Parenthood does – except abortions – is already being done by community health centers. Let’s be clear: We can – and we will – take federal money away from Margaret Sanger’s organization and send it to more deserving health organizations that neither perform abortions nor sell the remains of unborn babies.

There are three things we can do right now toward that end. First, we can join groups like Catholic Vote in becoming citizen co-sponsors of the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act. And, we can call upon our congressional leaders to support Representative Black’s important bill to Defund Planned Parenthood. Second, we can put pressure on Speaker Boehner to get on board both of these bills. And, thirdly, we can encourage our US Senators to follow the example of Representative Black and to heed the words of Rand Paul and find workable solutions to defunding Planned Parenthood.

4. We can support sensible state and federal legislation to ban all late-term abortions.

Shortly after the Center for Medical Progress released its first two videos, Wisconsin Governor and Republican presidential hopeful, Scott Walker, signed into law a ban on non-emergency late-term abortions. The legislation attracted the vitriol of anti-life groups like Planned Parenthood. One statement released to the press called Walker “the most dangerous governor for women’s health.” And, radical pro-choice politicians, like Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, called Walker’s ban “dangerous,” “extreme,” and “unacceptable.”

Writing for Life Site, Ben Johnson explains that Walker’s “measure would disallow abortions after 20 weeks except to save the mother’s life or if she would suffer major, irreparable physical harm within the next 24 hours.” Governor Walker went on record saying that twenty weeks marks a “reasonable standard” because “At five months, … [the]unborn child can feel pain.” Wisconsin’s forty-fifth governor further contends that, “For people, regardless of where they might stand, when an unborn child can feel pain, I think most people feel it’s appropriate to protect that child.”

Governor Walker signed his ban into law just months after the US House of Representatives voted 242-184 to approve a similar bill, according to LifeNews.com.

Therefore, we should take the time to thank those representatives who voted in support of the ban on late-term abortions. And, we need to encourage our senators who will soon vote on the bill to stand up for life. Those of us living in states without bans on late-term abortions should ask our elected leaders – including assemblymen, state senators, and governors – to initiate legislation in defense of the unborn.

Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to pray to end abortion. As Catholics, our prayer will take many and multiple forms, including fasting and mortification, private and communal prayers, and especially the corporal works of mercy of ransoming the captive unborn and burying the pre-born dead.

But, at times, our prayer may take the form of making financial contributions to pro-life health care centers. At other times, some might discern God’s invitation to make an even greater contribution with a life of joyful giving to those at the margins of society.

So, let us pray especially for those young women and men who may be in the midst of discerning a calling to enter a religious community like St. Jeanne Jugan’s Little Sisters of the Poor, Blessed Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, or Cardinal O’Connor’s Sisters for Life. Those communities offer an invaluable witness to the dignity and inestimable value of each and every human life.

And, if you are one of those people discerning a call to religious life in service to the most marginalized and the most vulnerable members of our society, may you do one thing more.